Japan will step onto the global chess stage in June 2026, as Tokyo prepares to host a top-tier international chess event for the first time in the country’s history. The two-day showdown, scheduled for June 6–7, will bring the world’s leading women players to a nation renowned for its deep-rooted board game culture.
The event is one of four stops on the newly launched WR Women’s Chess Tour, a global circuit spanning Asia, Europe, the Americas, and Africa, with Tokyo selected as the inaugural venue. Conceived by Wadim Rosenstein as a professional series with international reach, the tour aims to raise the profile of women’s chess and position it alongside major global sports competitions, in a similar way to the WTA tennis circuit.
Among the first confirmed names in the field are Vaishali Rameshbabu (India), the recent winner of the Candidates Tournament and a World Championship contender. She will be joined by Alexandra Kosteniuk (Switzerland) and Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgaria), both former World Champions in classical and rapid chess.
The President of the Japan Chess Federation, Hiroshi Manabe, welcomed the new event held in Tokyo. “This is a landmark moment for chess in Japan, and I trust the organizer will be making it a success. Having a chess event of this level for the first time allows us to showcase the world’s best women players to a new audience and bring the game closer to the public,” he said. “Chess has been developing rapidly here, but there are still much fewer players than Shogi. However, the global reach of chess is enormous, with over 700 million players worldwide. We see this as a unique opportunity to accelerate its growth in Japan and connect our community to the international stage.”
“It is an honor to bring a competition of this caliber to Japan for the first time,” said Wadim Rosenstein, who is sponsoring the tour through his company WR Group Holding. “Chess is immensely popular in some Asian countries, such as the Philippines and Indonesia, but still relatively small in Japan, and we plan to change that. We believe chess has all the elements to resonate with Japanese society, and I am determined to invest in making it happen,” he added. “Besides, I deeply care about the development of women’s competitions, and bringing these events to prime locations around the world is a good way to achieve that goal.”
Rosenstein, whose holding of companies operates across 70 countries in sectors like logistics, heavy engineering, and IT, also expects the event to attract the attention of Japan’s leading corporations to chess, one of the most global sports.
